Saving Your Home During A Bankruptcy
Do you own a home? Are you considering filing for bankruptcy? You need to take steps to protect your home if you want to keep it. First off, you can keep your home if you file a chapter 13 and have enough income to cover the monthly payment for three to five years until your debts are paid. For instance, if you owe two or three months of mortgage payments and say you owe two years back property taxes, you can save your house by filing a chapter 13. You will need to have enough income to pay your monthly living expenses and enough leftover to pay the monthly bankruptcy payment.
If you are filing a bankruptcy chapter 7, you need to be current on your mortgage payments and have very little equity in the home. The mortgage company holds the title to the home and the courts cannot make the sale to pay debts. You can save your house before filing for a chapter 7, by paying on time payments and keeping up with your property taxes before anything else. If you owe back payments on the house, you might lose the home if the mortgage company cannot agree on a payment.
If you have a large amount of unsecured debt and just a car loan or house payment, you could save your home during a chapter 13. You will need to keep up your monthly payments, insurance and property taxes to satisfy the mortgage company and the courts. Before you take the step to saving your home, make sure you will have enough income to pay the monthly expenses and the monthly payments to the trustee. It is very important that you do not send your monthly trustee payments in late. If you have late payments, you could void the agreement made to the creditors and the court.
Saving your home during a bankruptcy is up to you. If you make an agreement with the creditors and the court, you need to continue keeping that agreement for the time of the bankruptcy repayment plan. It is important that you not default on any payments. Keeping your home during a bankruptcy is not as hard as some people think. It is better to talk with a bankruptcy attorney before things get out of hand. You can get help and take the steps to save your home before filing for bankruptcy.
After talking with a lawyer and paying your down payment, you should not discuss any details with the mortgage company. Your lawyer will take care of all the communications so that there are no misunderstandings. Your lawyer and the trustee will work with you and the creditors to set up the payment plans and you should not receive any calls from the mortgage company after that unless you are late with your mortgage payment again. Since you have more than likely dealt with the mortgage company trying to resolve the problem before looking into a chapter 13, you no they can be a little unreasonable.